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Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of Mechanization Impact Experiences on the Rural Population and the Implications for Ethiopian Smallholders

Received: 11 July 2016     Accepted: 21 July 2016     Published: 12 August 2016
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Abstract

Ethiopia is currently at its GTP II program implementation years. In these years, the country is expected to undergo transformation of its economy. The rural Ethiopia is expected to transform itself in many ways including but not limited to demography, farm power, intensification, employment reduction, diversification of livelihoods and most importantly increased productivity. In this aspect, the contribution of appropriate agricultural mechanization cannot be relegated given the research and actual evidences from within and other developing countries. Hence, utilization of appropriate agricultural mechanization is expected to enhance the transformation of rural Ethiopia and lead to a middle income country by 2025. Therefore, this review of literature was undertaken to bring to light the various opportunities of appropriate agricultural mechanization as an input for transformation. It tries to link the different effects of mechanization under a developing economy. Mechanization once implemented with great ambition and ultimate failure has resulted in unfitness to the Ethiopian condition. In addition to land holding and other institutional issues, demography resulted in the idea and conclusion by most Ethiopians that mechanization will not work in Ethiopia at all. The great deviation in assuming the contribution of mechanization to the development process as a whole is intensified by the poor perception of people about it. Most people declare mechanization only refers to tractor and combine harvester. However, mechanization includes the different small and medium agricultural implements used in the production, processing and transporting of agricultural produces. Generally Indian experience shows that mechanization has a positive overall effect on the development of rural areas. With certain opportunity costs especially little displacement of human labor, mechanization having a response coefficient of 0.45 bears an important part of the agricultural production system. However, owing to the land conditions of Ethiopian smallholder what is most important is selective use of mechanization technologies that could increase the technical efficiency of the smallholder through increasing the labor and land productivity. So from the review it is possible to conclude that mechanization of agriculture bears undisputed truth for improving food security, creating employment opportunities, increasing productivity, reducing loss and promoting economic gender empowerment while maintaining environmental degradation to lower levels.

Published in Engineering and Applied Sciences (Volume 1, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15
Page(s) 39-48
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2016. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Developing Economy, Empowerment, Employment, Environment, Mechanization, Productivity, Rural Ethiopia, Transformation

References
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  • APA Style

    Dagninet Amare, Wolelaw Endalew. (2016). Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of Mechanization Impact Experiences on the Rural Population and the Implications for Ethiopian Smallholders. Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1(2), 39-48. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15

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    ACS Style

    Dagninet Amare; Wolelaw Endalew. Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of Mechanization Impact Experiences on the Rural Population and the Implications for Ethiopian Smallholders. Eng. Appl. Sci. 2016, 1(2), 39-48. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15

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    AMA Style

    Dagninet Amare, Wolelaw Endalew. Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of Mechanization Impact Experiences on the Rural Population and the Implications for Ethiopian Smallholders. Eng Appl Sci. 2016;1(2):39-48. doi: 10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15,
      author = {Dagninet Amare and Wolelaw Endalew},
      title = {Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of Mechanization Impact Experiences on the Rural Population and the Implications for Ethiopian Smallholders},
      journal = {Engineering and Applied Sciences},
      volume = {1},
      number = {2},
      pages = {39-48},
      doi = {10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.eas.20160102.15},
      abstract = {Ethiopia is currently at its GTP II program implementation years. In these years, the country is expected to undergo transformation of its economy. The rural Ethiopia is expected to transform itself in many ways including but not limited to demography, farm power, intensification, employment reduction, diversification of livelihoods and most importantly increased productivity. In this aspect, the contribution of appropriate agricultural mechanization cannot be relegated given the research and actual evidences from within and other developing countries. Hence, utilization of appropriate agricultural mechanization is expected to enhance the transformation of rural Ethiopia and lead to a middle income country by 2025. Therefore, this review of literature was undertaken to bring to light the various opportunities of appropriate agricultural mechanization as an input for transformation. It tries to link the different effects of mechanization under a developing economy. Mechanization once implemented with great ambition and ultimate failure has resulted in unfitness to the Ethiopian condition. In addition to land holding and other institutional issues, demography resulted in the idea and conclusion by most Ethiopians that mechanization will not work in Ethiopia at all. The great deviation in assuming the contribution of mechanization to the development process as a whole is intensified by the poor perception of people about it. Most people declare mechanization only refers to tractor and combine harvester. However, mechanization includes the different small and medium agricultural implements used in the production, processing and transporting of agricultural produces. Generally Indian experience shows that mechanization has a positive overall effect on the development of rural areas. With certain opportunity costs especially little displacement of human labor, mechanization having a response coefficient of 0.45 bears an important part of the agricultural production system. However, owing to the land conditions of Ethiopian smallholder what is most important is selective use of mechanization technologies that could increase the technical efficiency of the smallholder through increasing the labor and land productivity. So from the review it is possible to conclude that mechanization of agriculture bears undisputed truth for improving food security, creating employment opportunities, increasing productivity, reducing loss and promoting economic gender empowerment while maintaining environmental degradation to lower levels.},
     year = {2016}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Agricultural Mechanization: Assessment of Mechanization Impact Experiences on the Rural Population and the Implications for Ethiopian Smallholders
    AU  - Dagninet Amare
    AU  - Wolelaw Endalew
    Y1  - 2016/08/12
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15
    DO  - 10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15
    T2  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    JF  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    JO  - Engineering and Applied Sciences
    SP  - 39
    EP  - 48
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-1468
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.eas.20160102.15
    AB  - Ethiopia is currently at its GTP II program implementation years. In these years, the country is expected to undergo transformation of its economy. The rural Ethiopia is expected to transform itself in many ways including but not limited to demography, farm power, intensification, employment reduction, diversification of livelihoods and most importantly increased productivity. In this aspect, the contribution of appropriate agricultural mechanization cannot be relegated given the research and actual evidences from within and other developing countries. Hence, utilization of appropriate agricultural mechanization is expected to enhance the transformation of rural Ethiopia and lead to a middle income country by 2025. Therefore, this review of literature was undertaken to bring to light the various opportunities of appropriate agricultural mechanization as an input for transformation. It tries to link the different effects of mechanization under a developing economy. Mechanization once implemented with great ambition and ultimate failure has resulted in unfitness to the Ethiopian condition. In addition to land holding and other institutional issues, demography resulted in the idea and conclusion by most Ethiopians that mechanization will not work in Ethiopia at all. The great deviation in assuming the contribution of mechanization to the development process as a whole is intensified by the poor perception of people about it. Most people declare mechanization only refers to tractor and combine harvester. However, mechanization includes the different small and medium agricultural implements used in the production, processing and transporting of agricultural produces. Generally Indian experience shows that mechanization has a positive overall effect on the development of rural areas. With certain opportunity costs especially little displacement of human labor, mechanization having a response coefficient of 0.45 bears an important part of the agricultural production system. However, owing to the land conditions of Ethiopian smallholder what is most important is selective use of mechanization technologies that could increase the technical efficiency of the smallholder through increasing the labor and land productivity. So from the review it is possible to conclude that mechanization of agriculture bears undisputed truth for improving food security, creating employment opportunities, increasing productivity, reducing loss and promoting economic gender empowerment while maintaining environmental degradation to lower levels.
    VL  - 1
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Bahir Dar Agricultural Mechanization and Food Science Research Center, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

  • Bahir Dar Agricultural Mechanization and Food Science Research Center, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

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